Let us not eat meat in Auroville

Dear Auroville Family & Friends,

if you visit any holy dham of India in India you will notice with much delight that there is not a single trace of meat to be found.
All sages of India have taught of non-killing as they could see that the very same soul within the animal is as sentient as they and a child of the same one Lord as they.
India boasts the largest number of vegetarians per capita in the world (I have often thought that as a country it should be awarded the Nobel peace prize for this massive statement of non-violence, but it goes silently unrecognized in a world predominated by meat) and has the most illustrious and delicious vegetarian cuisine in the world.
Banaras Hindu University Ayurveda department did peer reviewed
research which showed that whole grains and legumes provide a full protein and this combination has been the foundation of Indian cuisine for thousands of years. Our loyal idly, dosa, pongal, kitcheri and so many more of South India are no less than this magnificent combination.

Why should we exist by hurting, harming or killing another sentient being? What right do we have?
Whether it's neatly packaged in a supermarket or sold on the street, no human has the right to kill or endorse the killing of any other animal. That animal is a soul in a body and it has it's own evolutionarily cycle, it should be loved, protected and nurtured by us, just as we would do the same to our own children.
So when first arriving in this city of dawn we found the ultimate paradox is that meat is served still and consumed in public places that are all part of this "city of the future".

If we continue the cycles of violence in our daily regimen how can we expect our city to be one of peace and free of conflict and disparity?

So I urge all living here to rethink this very point. Do we want to live in a place where meat is served?

With such a diverse culinary heritage on this soil, we can present the magnificence of Indian cuisine in all its wonders and brilliance.
I hope at least a few people out there feel the same way and the tide can turn so that at least in our hearts we know that no animal has suffered for the gratification of the residents of this holy dham.

Let us build a city with non-killing as its foundation, with love of all creatures as its mortar and with respect for all life as its walls.

"Humanity's true moral test, its fundamental test, consists of its attitude toward those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect, human kind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it." -- Sri Aurobindo

"I knew a lady, a young Swedish woman, who was doing sadhana; and she was by habit a vegetarian, from both choice and habit. One day she was invited by some friends who gave her chicken for dinner. She did not want to make a fuss, she ate the chicken. But afterwards, during the night suddenly she found herself in a basket with her head between two pieces of wicker-work, shaken, shaken, shaken, and feeling wretched, miserable; and then, after that she found herself head down, feet in the air, and being shaken, shaken, shaken.(Laughter) She felt perfectly miserable; and then all of a sudden, somebody began pulling out things from her body, and that hurt her terribly, and then someone came along with a knife and chopped off her head; and then she woke up. She told me all this; she said she had never had such a frightful nightmare, that she had not thought of anything before going to sleep, that it was just the consciousness of the poor chicken that had entered her, and that she had experienced in her dream all the anguish the poor chicken had suffered when it was carried to the market, sold, its feathers plucked and its neck cut!” - The Mother on being asked what happens if one eats meat?

"Food affects the mind. For the practice of any kind of yoga, vegetarianism is absolutely necessary since it makes the mind more sattvic [pure and harmonious]." - Ramana Maharishi